d'assurance

Medical Mutual of Ohio Screening Program

2010-01-08T20:46:00.001-08:00

A first-of-a-kind, three-year, community-wide wellness initiative is being launched in the city of Solon by Medical Mutual of Ohio, a leading provider of Ohio individual health insurance. Called "Healthy Solon," this project involves screening citizens for illness, tabulating data on illnesses and the rate of occurrence, and recording the results of any treatments people choose to undergo.

Paula Sauer, Medical Mutual's vice president of Care Management, said the health of Solon residents will be tracked over the duration of the three-year wellness initiative.

"Through an early health risk assessment (HRA), residents will have the opportunity to identify a potential health issue," said Sauer. "Health awareness and early detection programs will figure prominently in the first year of the pilot program. Solon residents will be offered blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, along with heart disease, diabetes, lung, skin and prostate cancer screenings," said Sauer. "Residents will also be encouraged to take part in walking for wellness programs, cooking and nutrition demos, smoking cessation, and stress prevention."

While Medical Mutual will not be including treatment or medication for any illness discovered during the screening process, it will advise participants of treatment options, allowing them to assess their Ohio healthcare insurance plan for appropriate inclusion

Sauer said at the conclusion of the three-year pilot program, benchmarks will have been established to measure the health of Solon citizens and the overall success of this effort. "Through screenings and HRA's, if we identify one person at risk or get one person to quit smoking, we will have done our job," said Sauer.

In addition to Medical Mutual, others supporting Healthy Solon include: Cleveland Clinic Solon Family Health Center, Solon City Schools, Hillcrest Hospital, South Pointe Hospital, AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

Founded in 1934, Medical Mutual of Ohio is one of the oldest health insurance companies in America. Based in Cleveland, Medical Mutual serves its customers through high-quality, flexible, and affordable group and personal health insurance plans, and third-party administrative services to self-insured group customers. Medical Mutual offers a full-line of products, including Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Health Savings Account (Ohio HSA Health Plans), personal vision insurance, and individual dental insurance. SuperMed One, Medical Mutual's personal health insurance product has a variety of deductibles, coinsurance, and co-pays to meet the needs of any individual or family.

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How to make money blogging while you work from home

2010-01-08T20:13:00.001-08:00

When talking about online business, work from home or affiliate market, none of these topics is complete unless the word blogging has been exhaustively used. Many bloggers run into trouble thinking that they can make loads of money by blogging but fail to put in the necessary effort.

A blog can be a cash cow. Many people have realized this and converted a hobby into a money making venture. This does not come easily though, and you need to invest a lot of effort, hard work and disappointments into the blog and blogging activity to see any outcome.

How to make money using your blog

If you learn a couple of rules and you already have or are willing to come up with a blog, then you are on your way to making money in a source that least expect. As long as you are determined to be successful, your blog cannot only be your hobby; it can be a very reliable income source. You must come up with a good blog design and take good care of it in order to see the returns it gives.

Where most entrepreneurs fail is not in setting up or the initial design of the blog but updating and improving the design. Failing to update your design will mean that bloggers will eventually get bored to visit and every time run into the same line. Changing the contents is not all that is necessary to make the blog appealing and attractive, the graphics, format and layout and pictures play a big role in making the blog look new each time and make a blogger want to visit over and over.

Advertising your blog

To get targeted traffic to your blog, you have to advertise it. If you do not advertise your blog, how will visitors even know that it exists in the first place? Once you have advertised your blog and are getting enough traffic, advertise on your blog. Adding a Google Adsense is the easiest way to generate income by directing visitors to sites that they are interested in. To get Google Adsense advertising, you will need to sign up with a Google Adsense account and they will verify that your site meets all the requirements before setting you up with an Adsense account.

Services and products

If you are selling certain products and services of your own, it is best to advertise them on your blog. Blogging regularly will ensure that search engines will index your blog and you will appear on the top results of search engines, hence more traffic. More traffic will translate to sales and that is what every entrepreneur wants.

Affiliate products

One very common way to generate blog income is through selling affiliate products. Pick products and services that pay well and are related to the contents on your blog and place their links on your blog. The commission that you will generate from these referrals can be more than you expect! hot news and trend

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Three New Smartphones with Promising Features

2010-01-08T19:34:00.001-08:00

Today, mobile phones are small and handy communication devices packed with top notch and high features. To provide the best to the users, mobile manufacturers are coming with handsets loaded with more and more features that cannot be ignored. Due to their advanced features capable of handling diverse functions, latest mobile phones have become a craze among the users.

Smartphones are the latest choice that not only provide communication functionality but also offers other features including internet browsing, email, calendars, audio players, GPS facility, organizers, video and still camera. There are a number of smartphones available in the market offering high end functions. Three new promising Smartphones are listed below that deserve to be called the leaders:

Nokia N900 - Built on the work horse principle, Nokia N900 is a PDA Smartphone with stylish looks and attractive design. Working on Maemo 5 operating system, the Nokia N900 provides ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor for integral operations. N900 comes with an internal memory of 32 GB and also includes a 5MP digital camera, an MP3/MP4 player, an FM stereo radio and a document viewer.

Blackberry 8900 Curve - Blackberry 8900 Curve is the latest Blackberry Smartphone which is a combination of advanced mobile technology and style. This new Blackberry phone is packed with so many new and exciting features that it is very difficult to list them in just few words. Offering the best of the best in mobile technology, only one word can describe Blackberry 8900 Curve, Exclusive.

Nokia E51 - Nokia E51 is a member of Nokia E series Smartphones offering user friendly navigation and quick access capabilities. Nokia E51 is a quad band mobile phone that comes in a metal body with an all gloss finish. Nokia E series handsets are iconic example of latest mobile phones and Nokia E51 is no exception. With its stunning looks, this new Smartphone, from the house of Finnish mobile giants Nokia, is definitely going to win the hearts of the users who are looking from something exciting in their phones.

Article taken from mp3klip

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Long-Term Care Insurance

2009-04-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

With an aging population and uncertainty about the future of Social Security, insurance to cover the high cost of nursing home or at-home health care is becoming more widespread. Medicare pays very little of the cost of long-term care in the United States. Medicaid will pay for the care, but only for patients whose assets are almost completely depleted.

With Congress always debating the future funding of these programs, financial planning for long-term care is more crucial than ever.

Medigap insurance can help pay medical expenses of the elderly not covered by Medicare. However, it doesn't cover custodial nursing home costs. In fact, about half of all nursing home residents pay for the care with personal savings.

Contact a qualified insurance professional or AARP for more information on long-term care insurance.

Health Insurance

2009-04-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

Most people enjoy medical insurance as an employee benefit, often with their employers paying whole or part of the premiums. Many employers offer a choice between HMOs (health maintenance organizations) and traditional fee-for-service care. Rates for HMOs are usually cheaper but have more constraints. Privately purchased health insurance is much more expensive -- often by several hundred dollars a month -- depending on such things as deductibles, coverage choices, and location.

Disability Income Insurance

2009-04-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

A long-term disability policy is activated, replacing a portion of your lost income, when you are unable to work for an extended period. Some, but certainly not all, employers cover their employees with some form of company-paid disability income insurance. Typically, such coverage is only partial and/or short-term in nature. Thus, many people seek to purchase an individual disability income insurance policy. If you're buying, try to get a noncancelable policy with benefits for life, or at least to age 65, and as much salary coverage as you can afford. However, keep in mind that the duration of coverage may be limited because of your occupation.

Insurers will usually cover up to 65% of your salary. Generally, you should have total coverage equal to two thirds of your current pretax income.

If your company provides disability insurance, check to see whether it's enough for your needs. Group disability insurance policies may be capped at six months and provide benefits that won't cover your expenses.

Life Insurance

2009-04-01T12:46:00.002-07:00

Life insurance, payable when you die, can provide a surviving spouse, children, and other dependents with the funds necessary to maintain their standards of living, can help repay debt, and can fund education tuition costs. The amount you need depends on your situation. If you make $100,000 a year, have a sizable mortgage, and have two kids headed to an expensive college, you could need $1 million in coverage.

Value-accumulating, but commission-heavy, whole life or universal insurance is often sold as a conservative savings vehicle.

Talk with an insurance agent who offers policies from companies whose financial strength is ranked high by rating agencies. And remember that you can shop around.

Liability Insurance

2009-04-01T12:46:00.001-07:00

Often called umbrella liability coverage, this takes effect when the personal liability and lawsuit coverage in other policies is exhausted. The cost for $1 million worth of protection -- especially necessary for high-income individuals and those with considerable assets -- may be only a few hundred dollars a year.

Homeowner's Insurance

2009-04-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

Homeowner's insurance should allow you to rebuild and refurnish your home after a catastrophe and insulate you from lawsuits if someone is injured on your property. Coverage of at least 80% of your home's replacement value, minus the value of land and foundation, is necessary for you to be covered for the cost of repairs. There are several grades of policies, ranging from HO-1 to HO-8, with increasingly comprehensive coverage and cost. Unless you increase coverage, most homeowner's policies cover the contents of the house for 50% to 75% of the amount for which the house is insured. The liability coverage in many homeowner's policies is $300,000.

Auto Insurance

2009-04-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Auto insurance protects you from damage to the often considerable investment in a car and/or from liability for damage or injury caused by you or someone driving your vehicle. It can also help cover expenses you or anyone in your car may incur as a result of an accident with an uninsured motorist.

Auto liability coverage is necessary for anyone who owns a car. Many states require you to have liability insurance before a vehicle can be registered. However, state-required minimum coverage often does not provide adequate protection. Suggested minimums are $100,000 for medical expenses per injured person, $300,000 for the total per accident, and $50,000 for property damage. Collision, fire, and theft coverage is also advisable for a vehicle having more than minimal value. You can cut costs, however, by choosing a higher deductible -- the amount of loss that must be exceeded before you are compensated.

The cost of auto insurance varies greatly, depending on the company and agent offering it, your choice of coverage and deductible, where you live, the kind of vehicle, and the ages of drivers in the family. Substantial discounts are often available for safe drivers, nonsmokers, and those who commute to work via public transportation.

Buying Life Insurance

2009-04-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

Conventional wisdom says that life insurance is sold, not purchased. In other words, some people are reluctant to discuss the importance of owning life insurance, and others are simply unaware of the need to have life insurance. Although many large companies provide life insurance as part of their benefits package, this coverage may be insufficient.

Who needs life insurance? If there are individuals who depend on you for financial support, or if you work at home providing your family with such services as child care, cooking, and cleaning, you need life insurance. Older couples also may need life insurance to protect a surviving spouse against the possibility of the couple's retirement savings being depleted by unexpected medical expenses. And individuals with substantial assets may need life insurance to help reduce the effects of estate taxes or to transfer wealth to future generations.

Encourage Responsible Teen Driving From The Start

2009-03-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

Travelers is here to help you talk to your teenager about safe driving. To help start the conversation, we’ve collected tools and resources to guide you. Five Reasons Why Teens Are At Risk

Drinking and driving In 2006, among fatally injured teenage vehicle drivers, 31% of males and 17% of females had a high blood alcohol content (0.08 Percent or higher).
Speeding Teenagers’ crashes and violations are more likely to involve speeding than those of older drivers, and teenagers are more likely to be in single-vehicle fatal crashes.
Driving late at night 44% of all fatal crashes involving teenagers occurred between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 am.
Not wearing seat belts Teens have the lowest seat belt usage rate of all drivers, and these rates become worse when there are other teens in the car.
Weekend driving 54% of teenagers’ fatalities in motor vehicle related crashes occurred on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Taken from http://www.travelers.com/

Assurance services

2009-03-31T06:16:00.000-07:00

Assurance services have been defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) as 'Independent Professional Services that improve information quality or its context'. Assurance services reduce the information risk; risk that the information provided is incorrect, on more than just financial data. The major purpose of assurance services is to provide independent and professional opinions that improve the quality of information to management as well as other decision makers within a given firm.

Types of assurance service

Audits can be considered a type of assurance service. However audits are only designed to test the validity of the financial statements. Under an assurance engagement, accountants can provide a variety of services ranging from information systems security reviews to customer satisfaction surveys. Unlike audit and attestation services that are often highly structured, assurance services tend to be customized and implemented when performed for a smaller group of decision makers within the firm. Often managers must make decisions on things they have incomplete or inaccurate data for, and decisions made on such data may be incorrect and increase the overall business risk. In this respect, assurance services can be very helpful in reducing such risk and help managers or decision makers make more confident decisions within a given firm. This is similar to audits in that investors will choose to invest in a firm that is publishing financial statements that have been audited by an independent firm.

Assurance services can test financial and non-financial information; due to this assurance services can be classified as consulting services. However, assurance services are not considered consulting^{[citation needed]} because in consulting services generally, an accountant uses their professional knowledge to make recommendations for a future event or a procedure, such as the design of an information system or accounting control system. In contrast, assurance services are designed to test the validity of past data of the business cycles. Although there is no boundary to what an accountant can test in assurance services, an accountant will not likely^[vague] accept an assurance engagement in which his firm or previous experiences does not provide them with enough expertise to make a professional opinion on the given data.

Assurance services done by accountants differ from nonassurance services.

Other examples of assurance services include:

Other Types of Life Insurance

2009-01-25T12:39:00.000-08:00

Survivorship life insurance (also referred to as last-to-die or second-to-die) is a unique type of contract that insures the lives of two people. It pays a death benefit upon the death of the second insured. Therefore, it is typically less expensive than two individual policies. Survivorship life is often used for estate planning, where it may be possible to potentially leverage today's dollars -- via insurance premiums -- into a potentially significant death benefit that can be used to fund estate taxes, create wealth for future generations, or benefit a charity. These policies may be available if one insured is medically "uninsurable."

First-to-die life insurance insures the life of at least two people and pays a benefit upon the death of the first insured. This policy is useful for covering a mortgage or other large debt obligation where there is more than one debtor. In addition, it can be an ideal tool for funding a buy-sell agreement within a closely held business.

How Much Insurance Do I Need?

2009-01-10T12:38:00.000-08:00

A popular approach to buying insurance is based on income replacement. In this approach, a formula of between five and ten times your annual salary is often used to calculate how much coverage you need. Another approach is to purchase insurance based on your individual needs and preferences. The first step is to determine your unique income replacement needs.

Currently, a large portion of your income goes to taxes (insurance benefits are generally income tax free) and to support your own lifestyle. Start off by determining your net earnings after taxes. Then add up all your personal expenses such as food, clothing, magazine subscriptions, club memberships, transportation expenses, etc. The remainder represents annual income that your insurance will need to replace. You'll want a death benefit amount which, when invested, will provide income annually to cover this amount. Then, you should add to that the amounts needed to fund one-time expenses such as college tuition for your children or paying down mortgage or debt.

Income replacement for nonworking spouses is an important and often overlooked insurance need. Coverage should provide for your costs for day care, housekeeping, or nursing care. Add to this any net earnings from part-time employment.

Finally, estimate your own "final expenses" such as estate taxes, uninsured medical costs, and funeral costs.

Types of Insurance

2009-01-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

Term insurance is the most basic, and generally least expensive, form of life insurance for people under age 50. A term policy is written for a specific period of time, typically 1 to 10 years, and may be renewable at the end of each term. Also, the premiums increase at the end of each term and can become prohibitively expensive for older individuals. A level term policy locks in the annual premium for periods of up to 30 years.

Declining Balance Term insurance, a variation on this theme, is often used as mortgage insurance since it can be written to match the amortization of your mortgage principal. While the premium stays constant over the term, the face value steadily declines. Once the mortgage is paid off, the insurance is no longer needed and the policy expires. Unlike many other policies, term insurance has no cash value. In this sense, it is "pure" insurance without any investment options. Benefits are paid only if you die during the policy's term. After the term ends, your coverage expires unless you choose to renew the policy. When buying term insurance, you might look for a policy that is renewable up to age 70 and convertible to permanent insurance without a medical exam.

Whole Life combines permanent protection with a savings component. As long as you continue to pay the premiums, you are able to lock in coverage at a level premium rate. Part of that premium accrues as cash value. As the policy gains value, you may be able to borrow up to 90% of your policy's cash value tax-free.

Universal Life is similar to whole life with the added benefit of potentially higher earnings on the savings component. Universal life policies are also highly flexible in regard to premiums and face value. Premiums can be increased, decreased or deferred, and cash values can be withdrawn. You may also have the option to change face values. Universal life policies typically offer a guaranteed return on cash value, usually at least 4%. You'll receive an annual statement that details cash value, total protection, earnings, and fees.

Drawbacks to this type of insurance include higher fees and interest rate sensitivity. Universal policies include up-front fees as well as ongoing administrative fees totaling as high as 5% to 7% of your premiums. You may also find your premiums increasing when interest rates decline.

Variable Life generally offers fixed premiums and control over your policy's cash value. Your cash value is invested in your choice of stock, bond, or money market funding options. Cash values and death benefits can rise and fall based on the performance of your investment choices. Although death benefits usually have a floor, there is no guarantee on cash values. Fees for these policies may be higher than for universal life, and investment options can be volatile. On the plus side, capital gains and other investment earnings accrue tax deferred as long as the funds remain invested in the insurance contract.

Universal Variable Life insurance is the most aggressive type of policy. Like variable life, you control your investment in mutual funds. However, there are no guarantees on universal variable policies beyond the original face value death benefit. These policies are probably best suited to affluent buyers who can afford the risks involved.

Key Terms and Definitions

Face Value -- The original death benefit amount.
Convertibility -- Option to convert from one type of policy (term) to another (whole life), usually without a physical examination.
Cash Value -- The savings portion of a policy that can be borrowed against or cashed in.
Premiums -- Monthly, quarterly, or yearly payments required to maintain coverage.
Beneficiary -- The individual(s) or entity (e.g., trust) that is designated as benefit recipient.
Paid Up -- A policy requiring no further premium payments due to prepayment or earnings.